Monday, 11 May 2009

Day 6

I have a friend in Cape Town that likes to speak about God as a "moving target". Sounds funny, I know. But there is something to it. God being on the move. You can't pin God down.
Just like the Lion in Narnia, wild and free. Always coming and going.
Or like traffic, but without the stress. It’s weird to think of God in that way. Somehow it just doesn't fit. Usually God is stationed somewhere, like in a church, on a mountain or up in heaven.
But maybe not, maybe God is right there where you are, a step or two in front, but still close enough to see the fresh footprints in the sand.

5 comments:

Jaco van Niekerk said...

I can associate with that... “God a moving target”. Actually, I sometimes think it is not God being the moving target, but the archer that cannot stand still. Stand still and drink in! I think we have missed the plot completely. I cannot stand organised religion – it’s like politics. Righteous ideologies twisted and maimed to become a vehicle of suffering, prejudice and evil. I believe in God – some days I feel like I don’t – but I know deep down that He never stops believing in me. I wonder if God isn’t utterly frustrated with us some days. We pray the same prayers every day, using the same verbs, nouns and phrases. We talk to no one like that – why do we talk to God like that? ...so we land up in heaven one day, we get the welcoming package that includes a nice silky-soft white robe and an instrument of your choice. Then you see Jesus walking up to you, smiling. What do you say to Him? The same silly phrases and funny words? Can that really be called a “relationship”?

I really like your blog and the honesty within in. A search for the real Loaf – something that you can feel, taste and digest without getting sick to the stomach. Please keep it up.

Unknown said...

Great comment. Love the archer metaphor and the upside down faith that it is God believing in us that makes our faith real.

D.J. Blom said...

It is so true and honest and people can not take honesty that is why we lie.
We want to pin God down and have all the answers but if we are able to do that and know everything we are God. I'm glad that I can experience God as I go along, sometimes He feels far but that is the times He is in me, He slows down his steps and carries me...

Unknown said...

D.J. what for a cool way of putting it: To experience God as I go along along. Love it!

Alexandra Steyn said...

I agree with your friend, Fourie. I have never gone to look for God in a church. I have found him in many places. In a quiet, empty, old cathedral in Córdoba, in Argentina when I lived there, in other people, on camps, but most sginificantly I found Him again After a long drought where I experienced an acute absence of pursuing God and his love. I knew He wasn't gone or absent. But much of who I was and the vision I had for my life had come to an abrupt standstill after a series of inexplicable tragic events in my life. God wasn't necessarily the one moving aroung here, gunning down importantly people in my life, but it certainly felt like it and I came to 'resent' God's plan for my life. You know the clichéd story people try to comfort you with in times like those: 'God has a plan for you'. I felt like belching. But I didn't take anything about God to the heart at the point and this time continued for about 5 years. I went in and out of all sorts of states. Emotionally, Physically, Religion-wise. But it was only six months after I had hit rock bottom so painfully hard that I found God and I was ready for it because I had peace in my soul. I was healing from within.

We went on holiday to the southern Drakesberg to a remote place called Loteni. There is nothing. The shop sells old chocolates, lots of fire wood, cold drinks and an assortment of trinkets and souvenirs. You don't go to Loteni for anything other than relaxinng, hiking, swimming in freezing mountain streams. We went in the winter, the snow capped peaks, the chilly winds, the warm lazy winter sun, the short days and looong nights sounds too good to be true. Only later would I realise, this is where I would find God again. So instead of doing the usual camping mission we stayed in little chalets. We took two but spent most of the time in front the sun, or hundling inside in front of the log fire.

We were lazy to the bone. This was a much needed holiday for all six of us. One day, we decided to give our lazy bones a good streych and take a hike along the hiking trail that passed our huts on the other side of the valley. It looked easy enough but boy were we wrong. I like hking but I'm not a friendly hiker. It was long and relatively hard. The flat stretch that passed our huts mislead us into thinking this is going to be 'fun'.

Here comes the magic. I was just focussing on hiking and mostly staring dead at the ground infront of me. (note I wasn't even carrying a backpack) I was miserable, hungry and kind of frustrated. We entered an old forest at the bottom of a mountain. It was magic. Wow. It was mysterious and clammy and dark and gloomy, just like the forests we imagine in our heads. This forest was more than that. I was overwhelmed. I wanted to stay there, drink in the magic.
Savour the experience to the max but we had to keep pushing ahead. I voiced how excited I was about it, but no words could possibly describe the awakening in the soul. This was merely the beginning. We endured more tedious hiking, but everytime you think you are about to scream I WANT TO GO HOME you reach the top of the hill and there jut to the right, in the shadow of the mountain, a little waterfall. It's own mystery and magic. This happenend a couple of times and I was over the moon. I was happy I was revived. I experienced natures ups and downs and these resembled my life to the tee. I found God. He hadn't gone away. I saw that straight path of the hike on the other side of the valley and it looked easy, kinda resembled what 'life' should/could/would be like. But walking it was hard. It held hidden challenges in along the way but it was magic. I was revived. I came back from that holiday a changed person. I'd always believed God was everywhere. I looked for Him in people. I saw Him in Big places... like the cosmos. I've always been a huge fan and explorer of astronomy. I saw God in the simplicity and beauty of math. But I'd never been to a place, walked a path (literally) that resembled my life and I am sure many others as well. And I could see God, even on those flat boring bits and the majesty and greatness at the tops of those hills. God moved there that day. I moved out of limbo, out of my doubtful mind and walked that path with me. He moved me. He moved mountains. He is omnipotent and His strength is boundless. Today I know He is everywhere. Even in this blog with all of us doubtful struggling, hurt, changing, story-telling believers.